To whom it may concern;

On this coming Thinking Day I will have officially been a Girl Scout for fourteen years, and since I recently bridged to adult Scouting and got my life time membership, on February 22nd every year, the number of years I have been officially involved in this organization will continue to increase. I say officially, because though I couldn’t be a Girl Scout for the first five years of my life I was already involved in Scouting. My mother led a Brownie troop when I was just an infant, and would take me to the meetings on her back. Therefore I consider myself to have been born a Girl Scout, and I plan to die a Girl Scout.

It could be argued that I stayed in Scouts through my teenage years because of my mother, since most girls start dropping from the program when they begin to hit puberty and suddenly being a Girl Scout isn’t cool. However I would like to state that I did not stay in Scouting because of my mother.

During my middle school years, while my friends and I all became awkward and self-conscious, the numbers of our once massive troop began to dwindle drastically. With my friends quitting Scouts to play sports, my loyalty to the organization began to waver. My mother told me that if I wanted to quit, I could, the option was always on the table, all I had to do was tell her I didn’t want to do it anymore. There were a few moments, where I remember seriously contemplating this option, however there was one huge thing that I knew I desperately wanted to do, that I would lose if I quit Scouting. At the time this thing was called Wider Opportunities, now it is known as the Destination program.

I had seen and talked to older girls, whom I much admired, who had promised me these opportunities to travel the world, and have the time of my life meeting other scouts from all around the globe. All I had to do was stay in scouting long enough, to be old enough to partake in one of these adventures. So hold on I did, anxiously counting the years, months and days, until I would be old enough to go on one of these excursions I had heard so many fantastic things about.

Finally the opportunity arose, and when I was thirteen (2003) I went on my first council sponsored Wider Op to Our Cabana, in Mexico. I would now call this experience life changing. My appetite for travel began to grow, I couldn’t fathom ever quelling the hunger for the chance to immerse myself in other cultures, and see the world. Every bite I got, though immensely satisfying, only made me crave more.

The following year, 2004, I went on a National Destination to Wisconsin, where other girls from the country and myself got to dabble in music, art and drama, and experience the great State of Wisconsin, where I had never been.

2005 saw me on a council sponsored patrol that toured Ireland and England. This particular event proved to be equally as life changing as the trip to Mexico. I had been talking for several years about partaking in a study abroad program while I was in High School. After I returned from the most amazing trip to Ireland (most of the patrol are still great friends, and we try to get together as often as possible), I spent the following summer working so in January of 2007 I could board a plane at PDX that would land me in Limerick, Ireland where I would live and go to school for the next six months. It was while I was still in Ireland that I filled out the application to be part of the patrol the council planned to send to Our Chalet in Switzerland in the summer of 2008.

Somewhere, in the midst of all that traveling, I had to decide what I wanted to try to do with my life after I finished High School.

I am now a freshman at the University of Montana, studying photojournalism. My hope is this career path will lead me around the world, take me to places I’ve never seen and allow me to share what the rest of the world is really like with anyone and everyone who will take a minute to look at my pictures, and really think about what it is they are seeing.

If it hadn’t been for Girl Scouts, I don’t know that I would have ever decided on this career path. I know I wouldn’t have already travelled as much as I have. I feel that the opportunities Girl Scouts provided me with to travel were probably the most important things that could have ever happened to me. The chances to travel kept me in Scouts when most girls quit, it awoke my passion (travel) that led to my current career goals. It exposed me to new cultures, and let me see just how lucky I am in my life. It gave me experience being away from home, dealing with unexpected problems, and taught me how to quickly adapt to any situation. The travel opportunities I got through Girl Scouts prepared me for life, and I count them as the most valuable experiences I’ve had so far.

For me these programs were so crucial to becoming who I am today. Most people don’t have the kinds of opportunities to travel that I did. A lot of my peers in High School, and today, don’t see how they could ever travel like I already have, and I always tell them that it is possible. For me, Girl Scouts presented the fact that it was possible, and then made it so by providing the foundation to build from, by helping put together patrols, that would then fundraise and plan their trips.

I think it is crucial to the Girl Scout organization to continue to offer these opportunities to girls. Girl Scouts is such an amazing organization, with so much to offer to help girls grow up to be strong, independent women, and one way they do that, is by providing girls with the all the opportunities imaginable, so they can see that they really can do whatever they want.

The loss of the Destination program would be a hard blow to the Scouting organization, particularly the older girl program. Without Destinations I would have quit Scouting, and would never have decided what I wanted to do. I want to see other girls have the same opportunities I had to learn and grow by travelling. Especially in a time where foreign policy has become so essential to our Nation, I feel it is important for our youth to learn about other cultures, and there is no more effective way of do that, than by visiting one.

Girl Scouting is where girls grow strong! It is where I grew strong, and where many generations after me should also grow strong by having as many opportunities to explore all their options, whether abroad, or at home.


Respectfully,
Sally Finneran